Naruto: A New Leaf
by Ian Hycrest
Summary: A fortunate mistake with a prank shows Naruto the true power of Shadow Clones, allowing him to grow as a ninja faster than expected. He soon realizes, however, that even in his beloved Konoha, things are not always as they should be. The Elemental Nations are a broken world where injustice and hatred reign supreme. Naruto's going to change that, no matter what it takes.
1. Chapter 1: Small Changes

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_

* * *

Naruto: A New Leaf

Chapter 1: Small Changes

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood on the roof of the administrative building, staring at the burned-out wreckage of the building below. No matter how hard he tried to rationalize and justify his past actions, he couldn't help but feel that this was all his fault. For so long, he had taken the easy path instead of confronting the truth that he knew was in front of him, and in the end, as it always was, it was the innocent that paid the price for his failures.

Shaking himself out of his maudlin thoughts, the Sandaime walked down the stairs and entered his office. He waited patiently for several minutes, distracting himself with the mound of paperwork before him until an ANBU operative entered with the investigators bearing the final report on yesterday's incident. He spent a few minutes perusing the document in front of him before setting it once more on his desk. "Are you certain of your conclusions?" he asked the investigators standing at attention before him.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," came the reply.

Sarutobi stood and turned to look out the window. A thousand emotions flittered through him. Joy mixed with pain, sorrow and relief. But in the end, it was fear that won out. Not fear for himself, but rather, for Konoha. As Hokage, he had to focus on the good of the village he was sworn to protect. _And look how well that worked out for you,_ some part of him whispered. He ignored that rebellious part. He had a duty. And with what he now knew, he was it was clear that the village as a whole was at risk.

And yet, one thought kept echoing through his mind, refusing to be silenced. "How did it all come to this?" he whispered to himself. In the end, though, it really didn't matter. Unfortunate events had occurred. Mistakes had been made. But he couldn't change the past. All he could do was move forward.

Though it felt like he was killing a part of himself, he knew that he had to give the order. "Naruto Uzumaki is now officially declared a nukenin. He must be brought in alive." He swallowed deeply, steeling his resolve. "It is not necessary for him to be unharmed, so long as he survives to have the bijū extracted."

* * *

_8 months earlier_

Naruto awoke with a scream. It took several minutes for his heart to stop racing, but as he took stock of his surroundings, he gradually calmed down. _Stupid Mizuki-teme! _He thought. It was bad enough that his teacher had tried to kill him, but to be having nightmares about it made things even worse. And there were so many nightmares. Every time he closed his eyes, it seemed all he could imagine was how horribly things could have gone. If Iruka had been a little too late, and Mizuki had managed to hit Naruto with that giant shuriken. Or if the shuriken had hit Iruka somewhere else, killing him. Or if… Naruto shook his head to stop that train of thought. He was alive. That's what he would focus on.

The ever-optimistic boy forced a smile on his face. Not only was he alive, but he was a real ninja now. He'd learned a clone technique and beaten a chūnin. Granted, the chūnin was just a school teacher, so he probably didn't really know any jutsu besides the boring stuff they taught at the academy, but still, he was a chūnin. And if Naruto could beat him, that must mean that Naruto was practically a chūnin already! He'd just graduated from the academy and he was already basically a chūnin. At this rate, he'd be wearing that stupid hat in no time!

He hummed quietly to himself as he thought about how awesome it would be when he was finally Hokage. Everyone would have to respect him. Even Sasuke-teme. And maybe Sakura-chan would finally agree to go on a date with him! Yes, life would be good once he finally achieved his goal. With that thought echoing through his mind, Naruto drifted off to sleep, a broad smile on his face.

* * *

The next day was an interesting one for the young shinobi. Jiji didn't seem to appreciate the awesome picture that Naruto had provided for his ninja registration, but that was okay. After all, he remembered Iruka-sensei once saying that it was important for ninja to be unpredictable. _A predictable shinobi is a dead shinobi,_ the wise teacher had said. And while Naruto may not be the best at things like taijutsu or shuriken jutsu (or math, or history, or reading, or navigation, or chakra control, or pretty much anything but pranking) he was the best ninja in his class at being unpredictable! With a skill like that, he was pretty much unstoppable.

Memories of how close he had come to death less than 24 hours ago welled up inside him, despite how hard he tried to force them down. In the end he'd won, but it had been a lot closer than he would like to admit. And as awesome as his Sexy Jutsu was, he couldn't always rely on it. Or on the even more powerful version he had used that afternoon to take down the closet pervert, Ebisu.

There was something about his 'fight' against Ebisu that made his brain itch just a little bit. There was a thought there trying to make itself known. He tried to figure it out, but gave up after a few minutes, deciding to make some ramen, instead. After all, ramen makes everything better.

He stood, staring at the small pot of water, waiting for it to heat. _The time that it takes to make ramen is the worst thing in the world, dattebayo!_ he thought. To be so close to such delicious goodness, but to have to wait, was the worst form of torture imaginable. Finally, the intolerable wait was over, and Naruto sat at the table, slurping the heavenly noodles, savoring each and every bite.

As he climbed into bed, he thought back to how satisfying it had been to prank Ebisu with his Harem Jutsu. _I wonder what other pranks I could do with my shadow clones,_ Naruto thought. Visions of his previous pranking masterpiece, painting the Hokage monument, swam through his head, but now, instead of it being just him, he was accompanied by an army of loyal pranking fellows. In fact, the Harem Jutsu proved that his clones could use the Henge as well, meaning that they could disguise themselves as random people to make his pranking even more effective! Naruto sat upright in shock, realizing just what this could mean. That must have been what his brain was trying to make him realize earlier!

A mischievous laugh, almost more like a cackle, echoed through the quiet apartment as Naruto realized the untapped potential of his new clone jutsu. He would need to experiment with it, after all, one of the first lessons he had learned for successful pranking was that it is important to know your limits. It's impossible to plan a good prank if you don't have a good idea of how long something will take, or how much glitter or pepper or paint or whatever else you're going to need.

How far away could the clones go and still carry out orders? What kind of jutsu could they use? How long did they last before the disappeared? A million questions were running through his mind. Sleep was late coming, but Naruto didn't mind. It was hardly the first time that he had lost a little sleep for the noble cause of pranking.

* * *

Naruto woke late the next morning, still tired from staying up so late thinking up new prank ideas, as well as experiments to figure out how to use his clones to be the best prankster ever! A glance at the clock showed how late it really was, so with a muffled curse, he quickly dressed and began sprinting to the academy. He dashed down the hallways, hoping he wasn't late, not after Iruka-sensei had made him a ninja. Ahead, he could see Sakura-chan and Ino having one of their little arguments as they entered the classroom at a dead tie. He made it in just after the two girls, trying not to pant too hard from running. As Sakura-chan and Ino argued over who got to sit next to the brooding teme (completely ignoring Tobio, who was already sitting in their desired spot), Naruto looked around the room. Most of the class was already seated, but fortunately there was an empty spot near that weird fainting girl.

Sure enough, the girl turned red and looked like she was struggling not to pass out as Naruto quickly sat down. He glanced over at her with a worried expression. She may be weird, but, still, if she was feeling sick, he should probably help her. Hokage-jiji and Iruka-sensei had both lectured him frequently on the importance of helping his comr-… Naruto frowned. He couldn't remember what word they always used. Something that started with com. He mentally shrugged. It didn't matter what the exact word was. Iruka-sensei had said that it meant the other ninja in Konoha. And since everyone in the room had passed their test, they were all one of those com-thingies. And Naruto, as an incredible shinobi and future Hokage, would help them!

Just as he was about to check to see if the dark-haired girl was sick, Iruka-sensei entered the room, still looking a little worse for the wear after his adventure with Naruto. Naruto was distracted away from his concerns about the girl next to him when his teacher announced that they would be placed into 3-man squads. While his first thought was one of dismay at being forced to work with people less awesome than him, he quickly realized that this would be great! He would be on a team with Sakura-chan, and some other person that of course wouldn't be as good as him, and then Sakura-chan would see how amazing he was, and then she would agree to go out with him! Lost in his fantasies, he didn't notice the pale-eyed girl next to him shooting timid glances his way.

Naruto was startled out of his reverie when he heard his name called. He gave a cheer as Sakura-chan's name was called next, but didn't even bother trying to hide his disappointment when he learned that he would be stuck with Sasuke-teme. Unfortunately, Iruka-sensei wasn't swayed by his well-reasoned argument that someone as awesome as him shouldn't have to put up with someone as pathetic as Sasuke-teme, so now he was in a team with the girl of his dreams and the stuck-up jerk that she for some strange reason liked.

"Just don't get in my way, dobe," the Uchiha said snidely.

Naruto glared at the other boy, but said nothing, choosing instead to concentrate on ideas for his next prank. The Hokage monument prank had been good, but now he needed to follow it up with something even better.

Iruka-sensei talked for a few more minutes before they finally got to go to lunch. Naruto was momentarily disappointed by Sakura-chan's cold refusal of his invitation to have lunch together, but quickly rallied his spirits. It was time to test some things for his most epic prank ever! Granted, he still hadn't come up with any ideas for the prank, but he knew it would be his best yet. With a quick hand-sign, he summoned a dozen clones. Actually, he mistakenly made a few extra, but that wasn't a problem. They quickly used the henge to transform themselves into non-descript civilians, and dispersed out into the rest of the village, each with a different mission to complete. It was a test to see how well the clones could work on their own, even when separated from Naruto.

Soon, lunchtime was over, and the students all gathered in the classroom once more. Naruto was a little disappointed that none of his clones had managed to report back on their assignments, but if the clones lasted until after the team meetings were done, that would still be okay.

Two hours later, Naruto was so bored he wanted to scream. All of the other jōnin had already come and retrieved their teams, so Team 7 was now stuck here alone waiting for what was apparently the laziest ninja in all of Konoha! Even Naruto had never managed to be two hours late to something. Well, not to something important. Most of the time.

Naruto's irritated grumbling stopped as a bunch of memories suddenly flashed through his head. He blinked a few times, as he suddenly remembered things he had never done before. He saw himself standing at the academy, looking at… himself. He used the henge then dashed off to one of the marshy pools near the hot springs, grabbing a discarded cardboard box as he went. It didn't take long to fill the box with nearly two dozen frogs. He rushed back into town, and with a quick glance to ensure nobody was watching, tossed the box of frogs through the open window of one of the stores that always charged him extra. He ran off as screams filled the store. As Naruto reviewed the memories, he realized that he was somehow remembering what one of his clones had done.

So, at least one of the clones had completed his mission. Unfortunately, that was where his luck ran out, for apparently an off-duty ninja had seen him, and gave chase. It hadn't taken long for the clone to evade his pursuer, darting down an alley and using the henge to turn into a cat. After a few more transformations to ensure he wasn't being followed anymore, the clone cautiously made its way back to the academy, but lunch had already ended. Beginning the trip back to the apartment, the clone only made it about halfway before dispersing suddenly.

Naruto frowned as he thought over everything he had seen from the clone's perspective. He knew from what he saw in the fight against Mizuki-teme that the clones weren't particularly strong. It only took one good hit to destroy them. Had somebody attacked the clone? That wasn't a particularly encouraging thought. Or maybe it had just run out of chakra or something? Naruto wasn't sure.

But he could remember things that the clones did! That was so cool! The pranks he would be able to play now… Naruto's smile grew wide, and he put his hands behind his head as he sat back in his chair. _So, if I can remember things that my clones did, I can have a coordu… a coorda… a big prank all across the village. Have a clone complete its part then pop itself, and I'll know it's done._

Naruto continued to brainstorm ideas for Operation: Most Epic Prank Ever, ignoring his new teammates until an angry yell from Sakura-chan broke his concentration.

"Three hours! Ino-pig and the others are already out with their teachers, and we're stuck here waiting for our lazy teacher!"

"Maa, that's not very nice," a new voice said from the doorway. All three students turned to see a white-haired man standing there with one eye covered by his hitai-ate. Sakura blushed, but remained silent as their teacher idly glanced at each of them. "My first impression of you… how do I say this?" He shrugged. "You're boring. Meet on the roof in 5 minutes."

* * *

"Stupid Sasuke-teme. And stupid sensei-teme." Naruto muttered as he entered his apartment the next night. And although he would never actually say it out loud, there was a part of him that was angry at Sakura-chan as well. After all that talk of teamwork, they left him tied to that stupid post for hours until he could finally figure out a way to get free. _If I only had a way that I could contact my clones for something like that_, the blonde thought ruefully. But wishing never accomplished anything. If it did, Naruto would live in a loving house with parents that doted on him like all of the other kids. And no matter how much Naruto had wished for that when he was younger, it had never happened. A hard lesson for a little kid, but if there was one thing that Naruto was used to, it was hard lessons. _Maybe I could keep some clones near by me at all times just in case I ever need help._

He was far too hungry to wait for ramen to cook, so instead, he poured himself a big bowl of cereal. He walked over to his fridge and pulled out the milk, then groaned when he smelled it. It smelled… off. He glanced at the expiration date, and was disheartened but unsurprised to see that the milk had gone bad two weeks ago. His own fault for not checking the date when he bought it. After all, it wasn't the first time that the shopkeepers had sold him bad food. Completely by accident, of course.

He dumped the milk down the drain, that sat down and began to eat the dry cereal. Sometimes he just wanted to scream about how unfair it all was. Why had he been the one tied to the post? Maybe Sasuke-teme had been a little bit better than him, but Sakura-chan had hardly done anything! And so what if Naruto had tried to eat lunch without getting a bell? Iruka-sensei had taught them that sometimes it was best to go straight for the target rather than getting caught up in the obstacles in the way. And the stupid villagers hating him because of the stupid fox. _If I'm protecting them, the least they could do is be grateful_, Naruto thought. But no, instead, they loathed and shunned him.

Like so many other nights, Naruto fell asleep forcing himself not to think about just how much he hated his life, instead trying to convince himself that things would be better in the morning. After all, it wasn't like they could get much worse.

* * *

A/N - Yes, it's a 'Naruto realizes the learning aspect of Shadow Clones earlier' style story, largely inspired by Angel of Snapdragon's excellent (and sadly, apparently abandoned) _A Drop of Poison_. The first three chapters will be highlighting the deviations from canon, rather than going into typical storytelling depth on stuff we all know. Once we get to the Chūnin exams, however, I'll switch to regular story mode because everything will be going off the rails very quickly.


	2. Chapter 2: Riding the Wave

Chapter 2: Riding the Wave

Naruto groaned as he finished weeding his section of the garden. He stood and stretched, ignoring the glares from his teammates as he walked over to a small table where their client had put a pitcher of nice, cold lemonade. He poured himself a large glass, then walked over into the shade, rolling his shoulders a little bit.

"Maa, you could go help your teammates now, Naruto. After all, that way, everybody would finish faster," Kakashi commented, not looking up from his little perverted book.

"Nope, no way!" Naruto replied, holding his arms in an X-shape in front of him to emphasize his point. "They could have helped me on Tuesday when they finished painting their sections of the fence. They didn't then, so I'm not going to help them now."

The jōnin sighed, but made no response. Naruto was unbothered. They might all be stuck in a squad together, but they weren't a team. He'd seen real teams – teams that actually worked together. He sent out about two dozen clones every morning to spy on other training grounds. Thus far, nobody had noticed the clones, since they were transformed into various small creatures like squirrels or birds. Many of the grounds were empty, but there were always some people here or there practicing. Unsurprisingly, it turned out that Naruto's sensei was pretty much the laziest.

Asuma, the jōnin sensei for Shikamaru, Chōji and Ino, was also pretty lazy, spending most of his time playing that complicated board game with Shikamaru, but he still at least gave the genin some pointers every now and then. And he wasn't always late, either.

Kurenai, the jōnin sensei for Kiba, Hinata and the quiet boy with sunglasses, was probably the best of the teachers. She took the time to explain things to her genin, and worked with each of them personally, rather than just giving them "teamwork exercises" like Kakashi and Asuma. However, Naruto wasn't so sure about her actual combat skills. From what he could see, she wasn't as good of a fighter as he would have expected from a jōnin, but he could be wrong on that.

He also observed a few of the older squads. One of the teams was vaguely familiar. He thought he remembered them from classes at the academy several years ago before he had been put with his age group, but he wasn't sure. Their sensei was loud, but at least seemed to be helping them. _Go figure, I get stuck with the lazy sensei that doesn't want to teach me anything,_ Naruto thought.

About 20 minutes later, Sakura finally finished her section of the garden, making her way over to the table where Naruto and Sasuke stood, and began trying to strike up a conversation with the black-haired boy, who replied with his characteristic grunt.

"Yosh," their sensei cried as a jumped up from the chair he had been lounging in. "Alright, my cute little students, we'll report on our mission, then we're done for today," he finished.

The first few times, Naruto had asked Kakashi to teach him some awesome ninjutsu, but the one-eyed jōnin simply told him to be patient, and that they would learn things like that later. Now, Naruto didn't bother. The mission report went quickly enough (not that there was much that needed to be reported about weeding a stinking garden), and then the three genin went their separate ways, not seeing the way their jōnin sensei sighed as he watched them all leave without a word.

Naruto entered the apartment where his clones were waiting. The clone that had stayed home and read books from the library had even made a bowl of ramen. Naruto sat at the table, eating the meal slowly (slowly being a relative term, considering that he was Naruto Uzumaki and it was ramen that he was eating) as one by one, the clones reported on what they had seen that day, and then dispelled. Naruto took a few minutes to review the memories from each clone before the next began his report. Some of the clones even had notes they had taken.

There wasn't all that much. Most days, it was just more of the same, but every now and then, Naruto learned something cool. Last week, one of the older genin squads had been practicing walking on water, using chakra to keep from sinking. That was pretty cool. It took Naruto quite some time to figure out how to do it, and he still wasn't very good, but at least he was learning something. He had sent clones to practice as well, and it turned out that he got better as they did, but not quite as fast. Having clones practice something was useful, but unless he was really concentrating when they dispelled, he didn't seem to retain the skill as well as he would like. It was more like a memory of watching someone else do it, rather than doing it himself.

As he swallowed the last of the delicious broth, Naruto stood, and walked out of the apartment, carefully locking the door behind him. He jogged over to training ground seven, where his team normally met. Not surprisingly, it was empty. He knew that Sasuke-teme had somewhere else that he practiced, and Sakura-chan didn't seem to want to do anything more than what Kakashi-sensei demanded. Making the familiar cross with his fingers, Naruto summoned up dozens of clones.

"Yosh! Let's do this -ttebayo," he called, as he and the clones all rushed together in a giant free-for-all.

It was after dark when Naruto finally returned home, tired and sore, but pleased with how the day had gone. He felt like he was getting better. Of course, there was no real way to tell, but he was sure that his training was working. _Maybe I should see if anybody else wants to train together,_ he thought. There were always some people still training even in the evenings. _And maybe one of these days, we'll finally get a real mission instead of these stupid chores._

* * *

As he returned home the next afternoon, Naruto resisted the urge to cheer. _If I'd known it would be that easy to get a real mission, I would have said something a long time ago, dattebayo!_ Team seven finally had a mission worthy of their talents. Or at least, worthy of Naruto's talents. The teme's talents weren't much to speak of.

Granted, this mission didn't sound like much. They were escorting some old drunk back to his home so he could build a bridge, or something. And the drunk clearly wasn't very smart, because he didn't even realize how amazing of a ninja Naruto was! But at least they would be getting out of the village and away from these chores.

Naruto skipped his extra training that night and instead spent that time packing. He didn't want to forget anything, so he filled his backpack with everything that could possibly come in useful. That didn't seem to work too well, because by the end, the pack was so full that he could hardly lift it.

Taking everything out, he spread the gear across his bed, dividing it up into 3 categories, like Iruka-sensei had said during one of his lectures one time. Essential, Useful, and Convenient. Naruto didn't remember everything Iruka-sensei had said that day, but he was pretty sure that he understood the basics. Everything from the essential pile goes into the bag. Things from the useful pile go into the bag if they will actually be useful on this particular mission. And convenient stuff goes in last. It still took a few tries, but eventually, Naruto had his pack full with stuff that he knew would help him on his mission.

Hoisting the pack onto his back, Naruto walked around the apartment for a few minutes. It was still a little bit heavy, but not too bad. _I really need to find some way to carry more gear without having it weigh me down,_ he thought. He had heard about sealing masters that could carry tons of stuff in special sealing scrolls, but when he had asked about fūinjutsu, the teacher had only told them a little bit (looking very uncomfortable the whole time) before changing the subject to something else.

* * *

Not surprisingly, Kakashi-sensei was late the next morning. However, the drunk was even later that their teacher, so it didn't really matter. Naruto couldn't help but feel a thrill of excitement as they walked through the massive gates. It was, after all, the first time he had ever left Konoha.

Hours later, he was beginning to regret his earlier excitement. It was still fun walking through the forest, and it was great to get out, away from all the unfriendly stares and hushed whispers, but dealing with Tazuna got a little bit tiring. If he wasn't drinking or making comments about how Naruto (and to a lesser extent, Sakura-chan) weren't really ninja, he was talking about his "super bridge" that he was building, because he was a super bridge builder. It was all Naruto could do to keep from groaning every time that topic of conversation came around. It was so annoying when someone talked about the same thing over and over to try to prove how awesome they were. In fact, when he became Hokage, he'd make a rule that nobody was allowed to do that anymore.

When they finally stopped for the night, Sakura-chan let out a grateful cheer (or at least, that's what Naruto thought it was supposed to be – she was so tired that it was tough to understand her), somehow managing to pitch her tent and climb into her sleeping bag while Naruto was still looking around the campsite. Tazuna fell asleep quickly as well.

"Do we need to have someone stay awake to keep watch?" Sasuke asked.

"No need," Kakashi replied. "We're still well in the borders of Hi no Kuni. Maybe tomorrow night, or the night after. It'll take us about 5 days to get to Nami, and most of that time we'll be in well-traveled parts of Fire Country, though some of the outer areas are a little bit rougher."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded wearily before following Sakura and Tazuna's example.

The next day dawned bright and early. Kakashi used some sort of jutsu to get a small campfire going, and they heated some water to make oatmeal. Then it was back to walking.

* * *

It was on the fifth day that something interesting finally happened. They had only been walking for about an hour when two scary-looking ninja jumped out of a puddle that Naruto had hardly even noticed.

Sakura-chan screamed as Kakashi-sensei was cut down by a long chain the two ninjas held. Naruto summoned dozens of clones, which wasted no time tackling the attackers. None of the clones lasted long enough to have any real effect, but it at least caused enough of a distraction for Sasuke to throw a kunai, pinning the chain to a tree.

Naruto summoned another batch of clones as the monstrous attackers dropped the chain and began to advance once more, one charging toward Naruto and Sasuke, and the other heading for Sakura, who was holding a kunai in an unsteady hand as she prepared to guard their client. Just as Naruto was about to charge over to help her, Kakashi-sensei reappeared and effortlessly defeated the enemy ninja.

After a short discussion with their lying client (but, Naruto had to admit, it sounded like he had a good reason), they resumed their journey. When he was sure that nobody was watching, Naruto swallowed deeply, trying to calm himself down. When the demon brothers had charged at him, he had panicked, using kage bunshin without even really thinking of what he was doing. It turned out to be a good move, and the clones had done their job protecting Naruto, but it was still the scariest thing the young genin could remember. Sure, there had been people in Konoha that had tried threatening him, but the secret mask people were always close by to stop anyone from doing anything. Out here, it was just him. And Kakashi-sensei. And the teme, and Sakura-chan. But mostly just him.

Tightening the straps on his backpack, he turned his attention back to the trail around him. Kakashi-sensei said that the next enemy might be even stronger. Naruto would have to be ready.

* * *

It was nearing nightfall when they finally arrived at Tazuna's house. Naruto looked over at the four shadow clones that were carrying their comatose teacher. Naruto was just grateful that the kid with the weird mask had killed the scary guy with the big sword. None of the Konoha-nin were in any condition to fight.

As Tazuna's daughter Tsunami got some beds ready for them all, Naruto stood near the doorway, looking out at the setting sun. _We're all alone here, _Naruto realized. If there were any more enemy ninja, the leaf ninja wouldn't have much of a chance with Kakashi-sensei unconscious. He took a deep breath, concentrating as a gathered as much chakra as he could, then used the kage bunshin no jutsu to create several dozen shadow clones.

"You know what to do," the blonde called out. "Go out there and find out if we have any more enemies!"

With a cry of "Yosh!", the clones transformed into small animals as they had done so many times before, disappearing quickly into the thick forest. Most would head for the nearby town, but a few went deeper into the forest.

"Those clones aren't worth anything in a real fight," the Uchiha said condescendingly as Naruto walked into the kitchen.

Naruto bristled, but kept his voice somewhat calm. "They can at least tell us if anybody is trying to kill us. That's good enough."

Sasuke scoffed. "Whatever. We still need to keep watch tonight. You take first shift, then wake me when you get tired, dobe."

Naruto resisted the urge to insult the other boy, choosing instead to walk back to the living room, where he sat on the couch with a frustrated sigh. He wished there was something he could do to use the time productively, but nothing came to mind. So, instead, he just sat there, listening closely for any indication that they were about to be attacked.

It only took about five minutes for him to realize that he wouldn't be able to stay awake for long if he just sat the whole time. Instead, he got up and began to patrol around the outside of the house.

Several hours passed, and night had truly settled in. Everyone else in the house was already asleep, but Naruto still maintained his quiet vigil. There was a small bench on the outside of the house where he could sit for a few minutes in between rounds. Just as he turned the corner and approached the bench, his eyes suddenly glazed over as he was assaulted by a rush of memories. Just as he finished reviewing the new memories, another clone dispelled, and another, and another.

As the memories settled in, he found himself rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "Hehehe, umm, oops?" he said, panicking inside at how exactly he was going to explain this to the others. Well, at least it could wait until morning. There wasn't much the three genin could do about it now.

* * *

Naruto woke early. Sasuke was still awake from his turn on guard duty, and Sakura was already awake. All three gathered around Kakashi-sensei's sleeping pad. Due to overuse of the Sharingan, he would be unable to move easily for about a week, but Naruto wasn't paying much attention to that.

"Umm, Kakashi-sensei? Something kind of happened last night…" Naruto trailed off, trying to think of how to explain what happened.

"And you waited until now to bring this up?" Sakura shrieked.

"Well, there was nothing we could do about it," Naruto tried to defend himself.

"Maa, maa, perhaps you could start by telling us what happened, Naruto," their instructor said.

Naruto frowned. "Well, I sent clones out to get information, y'know, see if there were any other people planning to attack us. And they saw some thugs attacking a girl. I think they were trying to do that thing where they make her have sex? I can't remember what it's called. But they were trying to do that. So my clones stopped the big guys. But then one of them started yelling that Gato was going to kill us all for attacking them, and then some other thugs came and started to attack us, and then some more of my other clones started to help fight, and then, when they saw that the thugs were losing, some of the villagers started to fight, and a bunch more thugs came in, but my clones were able to win, and then this really short guy came with two really big dangerous looking guys, and the villagers all got really mad but they were scared, and then some of my clones were able to sneak up on the dangerous guys by henge-ing into some of the thugs they had already beaten, and they beat up the dangerous guys, and then the villagers attacked. And that's… what happened," he finished lamely.

They heard a loud thump, and turned to see that Tazuna had dropped his bottle of sake, staring at them in shock. "This… short guy… did he have a fancy suit and a cane?"

Naruto screwed his face up in concentration, trying to remember. "I think so. Ya, I'm pretty sure he did."

Tazuna and Tsunami shared looks of amazement. "That was Gato," the old man finally gasped.

Kakashi's mind was racing, cursing his useless body right now. "Sasuke and Naruto, go with Tazuna into the village and see what happened last night, and what the current situation is. Be quick. Sakura will stay here just in case."

The three males nodded, Tazuna still too stunned to fully grasp what was going on.

* * *

A little over an hour later, the three returned, all of them shocked by what they had seen. Naruto's report had been correct. Gato and his thugs were gone. Some had been killed, including Gato himself, while others had been driven off.

The village was celebrating their new freedom, and it hadn't taken long for Naruto to be recognized. Some of his clones had apparently dropped their disguises and proudly announced themselves during the fighting. He smiled broadly as he remembered how good it felt as people cheered for him, calling him the 'Hero of Wave'. Many people had pledged to help Tazuna with the bridge. Naruto had left a few dozen clones in the village to help repair some of the buildings that had been damaged in the fight, and to provide some extra security in case any of the thugs came back.

That didn't seem very likely, though. The mansion where Gato lived had been raided. It looked as though the surviving thugs had taken everything of value they could find and run off. Tazuna had been disappointed that the money was gone, but quick to point out that the far more important things, like food and supplies, were still there.

Sasuke sat in silence after entering the house, seething. It wasn't right that a loser like the dobe was this powerful. Deep down, he knew it was wrong, and yet, he couldn't help but feel threatened that the blonde idiot was somehow getting stronger. Clearly, Sasuke wasn't learning fast enough if a dead-last like Naruto was beginning to catch up with him. He glanced over at his sensei, who was still lying motionless on the floor. Having such a lazy, useless teacher certainly wasn't helping matters. But what else could he do? Who else would teach him? While the people of the village all but worshipped the ground he walked on, that didn't exactly translate into people wanting to teach him. He glared at the blonde, unaware that the immobile jōnin was watching him closely.

Naruto walked into his room, at war with himself over his decision to keep the set of memories he had received from the clones this morning a secret. Part of him felt guilty over what was, in a sense, stealing. That was part of the reason he left clones all over the village to help out. But nobody needed to know what happened, and it looked like things were going well enough for the village even without the money.

It had been total luck that one of his clones exploring the forest had heard the fighting, rushing over to a small glade where two of the surviving thugs had taken the opportunity to ambush their fellow survivors. Both had been wounded, and neither had lasted long once the clone joined the fight. After all the goons were dead, the clone had been surprised to discover several large sacks filled with money, obviously gathered in haste as they escaped from the fighting in the village.

Naruto had learned at an early age that things weren't always fair. And it was never unfair in a good way. Bad things happened, and Naruto was the one that got blamed. That was life. So, now that the opportunity presented itself, for once, Naruto was going to accept that the unfair thing worked in his favor. There were a lot of things he could do with that money. Hire someone to give him some real training, for instance, since he certainly wasn't getting it with Kakashi-sensei.

It was as that thought went through his mind, that he remembered what Kakashi had said just that morning. If Zabuza really had survived, and the hunter-nin was actually a fake working with him, then there were other ninja in the area, very talented ninja, no longer in Gato's employ… Perhaps he could put his new-found wealth to good use. He obviously couldn't go himself. That would be dangerous. But if he sent a clone, the clone could learn, and then he would get the memories.

Naruto walked outside, making several dozen shadow clones to begin searching the forest. From what he had overheard from Gato's thugs, it sounded like Zabuza and the fake hunter-nin had a secret hide-out deep in the woods. With enough clones searching, it hopefully wouldn't take too long to find them.

* * *

A/N – Don't start thinking Naruto is OP. At this point, he's a bit better than in canon, but not by much. The goons were caught off guard, and even in canon, they got chased off by a bunch of villagers with gardening tools. Not exactly the cream of the minion crop.

Also, something to keep in mind going forward. In canon, Wave was an important part of Team 7's development, especially the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke. They didn't get that this time around...


	3. Chapter 3: Friends

Chapter 3: Friends

Naruto cursed as he fell to the ground once more with a loud thump. This tree-climbing thing was a lot harder than Kakashi-sensei made it look. He glanced over at Sakura-chan, who was walking up the tree with little effort. He scowled. It shouldn't be this tough. At least he was doing better than the teme. After all, he had already begun learning how to walk on water a little bit, and this was kind of the same thing. Except on a tree. And walking straight up instead of walking forward like normal. But besides that, it was pretty much the same.

Still, it was a stupid thing to learn. Kakashi kept refusing to teach them any cool jutsu, instead telling them it would need to wait until they had better chakra control. And this tree-climbing thing was supposed to help with that. Naruto scowled. _But at least he's teaching us something. That's better than before_, he thought bitterly.

Fortunately, Kakashi wasn't his only teacher these days. It turned out that the fake hunter-nin was actually a girl named Haku, who was (to Naruto's astonishment) even more beautiful than Sakura-chan! And she was also an amazing ninja. Haku had agreed to teach his clone every day, in exchange for the money she and Zabuza would have received from Gato, as well as Naruto's help in gathering the herbs that she needed to heal her master (easily accomplished with a batch of shadow clones).

While Naruto still wasn't sure how much he trusted the rather frightening looking man, Haku was certainly a different story. In fact, several times, Naruto had chosen to go in person rather than sending a clone. Naruto couldn't help but smile as he thought of the time spent with his wonderful teacher. She was very patient, and supportive. She understood his desire to get stronger to protect his precious people, and promised to help however she could.

The two teens spent a great deal of time practicing a variety of ninja skills. Haku was exceptionally talented with senbon, but was also skilled in taijutsu and ninjutsu. But perhaps the most valuable thing Naruto was learning was the mindset and mentality of an experienced shinobi. Never before had he realized just how many of the skills he had developed while pranking could be applied to being a ninja. But Haku quickly saw the parallels, and explained them well. As she pointed out, many ninja missions were nothing more than a very difficult prank.

Naruto turned his attention back to the tree in front of him, then glanced over at the setting sun. He had been practicing for hours, and while he was certainly making progress, it wasn't nearly as much as he wanted. _Maybe Haku could teach me how to do this, _he thought. She was certainly a better teacher than Kakashi.

* * *

It turned out that Haku could, in fact, teach tree-walking better than the barely mobile jōnin. She had him lay on his back with his feet against the tree. He practiced getting just the right amount of chakra in his feet to stick them to the tree without being blown off. Once he was confident in his ability there, she had him practice on a low branch, just hanging at first, but then, he started carefully walking back and forth, going slowly and paying close attention to how much chakra he was using. A dozen clones throughout the small glade they were in were also working on similar exercises. By that afternoon, Naruto found he could confidently walk all the way to the top of a tree and back down again.

"Now you have to practice being able to do it while distracted," his friend said with a mischievous grin.

"Distracted how?" Naruto asked, looking down at her from about ten feet up the tree.

Haku's smile widened, and she used her powers to make some small ice senbon. Naruto's eyes widened, and he began to run back up the tree, trying to get out of range. Unfortunately, he wasn't quick enough, and several senbon hit his legs. He fell to the ground as he lost control.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Haku asked, her angelic face a mixture of concern and chagrin.

"Ya, I'm fine. It takes a lot more than that to stop Naruto Uzumaki!" he replied, shaking his legs to get some feeling back into them.

"Well, that would be a good thing to practice. It needs to become second nature to you. You should be able to use your chakra to walk anywhere without having to really think about it. You could eventually even learn how to fight upside down. That's not a common skill, but it can be useful at times," she finished, then looked down uncomfortably.

Naruto frowned. Haku had seemed a little bit off all day. "Is everything okay?" the blonde asked. "You seem kind of distracted."

"Zabuza-sama is almost healed," the kunoichi replied softly. "He says that we need to leave early tomorrow morning."

Naruto felt like he had been punched in the gut, hard. He swallowed deeply. "Well, we knew you were going to have to leave eventually," he said as stoically as he could, trying not to think about losing his first real friend.

Haku nodded sadly. "I'll miss you, Naruto."

"I'll miss you too." He forced a smile on his face. "Besides, it's not like we won't ever see each other again! Anytime you want, you can come to Konoha!"

Haku laughed weakly, not wanting to dampen Naruto's enthusiasm by pointing out that missing nin weren't able to wander into major villages that easily. "I should go," she finally said.

Naruto watched as his friend and teacher walked out of the glade, then stopped and turned back to look at him. "And by the way," Haku added, "I'm a boy." With one last smile, his friend vanished into the thick forest.

Naruto stared. And stared. And stared.

"NAANNNIIIII?"

* * *

It wasn't long afterwards that Tazuna and his workers finished the bridge, with some assistance from Naruto's clones. Naruto smiled proudly when he learned that they had decided to name the massive bridge after him. The whole village turned out to bid farewell to the departing team. It was an emotional time for many, in particular Naruto and Tazuna's grandson, Inari, who had grown close despite a rocky start.

But now it was time for the leaf ninja to return home. Fortunately, they were able to travel much more quickly now that they weren't slowed down by an old, drunk civilian. Naruto sent out shadow clones as scouts to ensure that the path was clear, and, unbeknownst to his teammates, to bring the large sacks of money back to Konoha. Smuggling them into the village itself might be difficult, but for now, he could have the clones hide the bags in the massive forest from which the village took its name.

It was the afternoon of the second day when Konoha came into view. Naruto couldn't help but sigh. After how wonderful things had been in Nami, with everyone so grateful to him for what he had done, he was beginning to dread being back in a place where almost everyone hated him. It just wasn't fair.

As they passed the two chūnin guards at the gate, Naruto looked around, another wave of sadness filling him as he thought of Haku. Still, maybe he could find other friends to train with.

The three genin were excused after a short debrief with the Hokage, while Kakashi stayed to provide a more thorough report. Naruto wandered aimlessly through the village, not really wanting to go back to his apartment, but not having anywhere else to go. He eventually found himself nearing the training grounds.

As he walked across the small bridge leading over to training ground seven, he saw some movement coming from further over to his right. While it was only early evening, most teams had already finished their training by now, and so Naruto was curious at who would still be out. Strolling over to the clearing in what he thought was training ground nine, Naruto was surprised to see the fainting girl, Hinata, hitting one of the posts with far more determination than he had ever seen in the academy.

"Hey, Hinata!" he called out. The girl had evidently been practicing hard for some time, for her face was bright red as she spun around.

"Na-Naruto-kun?" she squeaked. "What are you do-doing here?" she stuttered.

"Well, I just got back from a mission and I was going to train a little bit. I sometimes come here to train after our team is done for the day." The blonde thought for a minute about what he had just said. "Well, I don't come here, obviously. I use my training ground, but you know what I mean."

"I know, I've watched," Hinata's eyes grew wide at her admission, and she hastily amended, "I mean, I've seen you there sometimes."

Fortunately for her, Naruto didn't seem to notice her slip. "So, I was coming over to train, and I saw you here training, and I thought we could train together!"

"A-Are you sure? I wouldn't want to hold you back. I'm not as skilled as you, Naruto-kun."

"That's okay," the cheerful boy replied. "My teacher said that everyone's good at different things. There's some things I'm better at, and there's some things that you're better at. That's why we have teams! This way we can both get better at the things we're not good at."

"O-okay," Hinata replied uncertainly. It was nice of Naruto-kun to be so optimistic. She just hoped that he wouldn't be too disappointed when he realized that she really wasn't good at anything.

Their first spar was a little bit awkward, to tell the truth. Hinata was surprised at how much Naruto had improved during his time away, but he eventually admitted that he had received some extra training from a friendly nukenin, though he asked her to keep that part quiet. Hinata struggled to keep up, but of course, Naruto didn't seem to mind. He kept encouraging her, even congratulating her on the few times when she actually managed to hit him.

Kurenai-sensei had taught her tree-walking a few weeks ago, so the two of them made a game combining tree-walking and shurikenjutsu, taking turns throwing blunted shuriken and kunai at each other as they ran around on their respective trees. They finally called it quits when it was too dark to see well. Hinata was exhausted, but at the same time, could honestly say that the hours they had spent were some of the best she could remember. Naruto's comments that he enjoyed it, and they should do it again, just made things even better.

* * *

While Naruto enjoyed spending his evenings practicing with Hinata, she wasn't always available, so he was still looking for other people to practice with. It was his good luck, then, that less than a week later he noticed another kunoichi training by herself one evening.

"Hi there," he called out as he stepped into the clearing on training ground nine. He immediately had to dive to the ground as three kunai flew into the tree directly behind him. With a muffled scream, he raised his hands in surrender. "I come in peace," he yelled.

"Who are you and why are you spying on me?" the panda-haired girl asked coldly.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage. And I wasn't spying on you." The jinchūriki frowned, then continued. "Actually, I have been spying on your team sometimes, but not just on you guys. I spy on everybody. I have to practice my stealth, and my jōnin sensei doesn't really teach us anything, so I try to learn from watching other teams."

The kunoichi frowned, seeming a little bit confused by this confession. "So why are you here?"

Naruto lowered his hands carefully, then stood up with a smile. "I saw that you were practicing, and I thought that we could practice together."

"Why would I want to practice with you?" the girl asked skeptically. "Throwing is a one-person activity. I don't need a partner."

"Well, ya, but that's only if you're throwing at the targets that are just sitting there. But that's not very realistic, is it? I mean, most ninja aren't just going to stand there and let you throw kunai at them," Naruto retorted.

"So, what, you're saying I should practice throwing at you?"

"Exactly!" Naruto answered brightly, before realizing what he just said. "No, actually, not at me. At my clones. They can run around, and that way you practice hitting moving targets." He frowned for a minute. "What's your name?"

"Clearly, you weren't spying very well if you don't even know that." The girl studied him for a few seconds before continuing. "My name is Tenten."

"Well, Tenten, how about it? Want some real throwing practice?"

Tenten's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What do you get out of it?" she asked.

Naruto shrugged. "I learn what the clones learn, so I think I'll get better at dodging as they do. Or maybe I'll learn more about how to throw well. I'm not very good at that."

"Alright, we can give it a try," the kunoichi finally conceded.

"Yosh!" Naruto cheered as he summoned up a few dozen clones. "They're solid clones, and one good hit will dispel them, so you'll know when you get one." A few of the clones began to run, but not fast enough. Naruto could only stare as Tenten's hands seemed to blur, projectiles flying away from her. Within seconds, a dozen of the clones had been dispelled, but the remaining ones were ready now.

It obviously wasn't enough to save the clones, but at least they made Tenten work for the victory a little bit. Still, it took less than 30 seconds for her to finish off her opponents. She turned back to look at a still stunned Naruto, then shrugged. "Actually, that was better than just throwing at a regular target. How many more of those can you make?"

Naruto smiled broadly. "I can make all the clones you can handle," he announced proudly, then followed it up by summoning dozens more. The clones immediately dashed away, seeking cover in the nearby trees.

A vicious smirk crossed Tenten's face as she looked at where her new victims were hiding. "Well, let's see if they've really learned anything," she said, as she set off in pursuit.

Naruto sat on the grass and closed his eyes, concentrating on the clones so as to better absorb the new memories as they came, a trick he had figured out during his training with Haku. Whether it was from the memories of the other clones, or simply from watching what worked and what didn't, it was clear that the clones were getting a little bit better. They used the environment well, and seemed to be learning to predict where Tenten would throw by watching her hands. She still managed to hit them all, but it took nearly 10 minutes this time.

As the girl exited the forest, Naruto could tell that she was much more enthusiastic about his idea of training together than she had been before.

* * *

Team 7 continued to take missions. Many of them were simple D-ranks in the village, but there were a couple of C-ranks as well. Nothing quite as exciting as their first big mission to Wave, but enough to break up the monotony of normal life.

It was shortly after returning from one of these C-ranks that Naruto met his final sparring partner, Tenten's teammate Lee.

"Ahh, good evening! You must be the most youthful Naruto-san," Naruto heard as he entered training ground 9. He blinked. Then he rubbed his eyes. Then he blinked again, several times. It didn't help. He had spied on Tenten's team in the past, and so, recognized Lee immediately. But still, there was just something odd about being so close to the bushy-browed boy.

"Uhh, ya. I'm Naruto. You're Lee, right?"

The other boy smiled broadly. "Yes, I am Konoha's Second Sublime Green Beast, Rock Lee! Tenten-san told me about your most youthful practice, and I thought that while your clones work with her, that you and I could feed our flames of youth together!"

Naruto glanced over at Tenten uncertainly. Fortunately, she seemed to understand what he was asking, even without him saying a word. "He wants to spar with you."

"Oh, okay," the still confused boy said. "Sure, we can do that."

"Yosh," the spandex-clad boy said before launching himself forward, nearly punching Naruto in the head. The blonde just barely dodged in time, but then found himself knocked back by the spin kick that followed.

Tenten just rolled her eyes as the two boys fought, before turning her attention to the clones watching interestedly. They began to run as they noticed that she was focusing on them.

* * *

Weeks passed, and Naruto was thrilled with how much he was improving as a shinobi. He had met Tenten and Lee's sensei, Maito Gai, who had given him some very welcome help with his taijutsu. Gai-sensei also gave him something else that was not so welcome, at least as far as Tenten was concerned.

"No." The kunoichi said flatly as Naruto walked into the training ground.

Naruto shot her a confused look. "No what?"

Tenten's right eye began to twitch. "Take it off."

Naruto just stared at her, completely nonplussed. "What are you talking about?"

"I am talking about _that!_ Take it off. You're not wearing that," came the harsh reply.

Naruto looked down at the awesome green spandex suit that Gai-sensei had so generously given him. "Why? It's awesome! It's breathable, and moisture wicking, and perfectly designed for free movement, all in a beautiful, stylish package!"

It took all of Tenten's will to suppress her growing rage. She recognized Gai's little sales pitch for the green monstrosities he had already inflicted on Lee, and that he frequently tried to inflict on her. "Don't care," she finally replied after several deep, calming breaths. "You can go back to wearing that orange eyesore, but you are not wearing that. I get enough green spandex from Gai-sensei and Lee. I don't need any more from you."

Naruto looked down at the spandex suit sadly. Shortly after meeting Tenten, he had given up his beloved orange jumpsuit when Hinata had confirmed Haku's statement that only a complete idiot would try to be a ninja while wearing something as eye-catching as that. Granted, both of them had been a little bit nicer in how they phrased it, but the meaning was still clear. "But, it's green," he tried. "It'll blend in with the forest like camouflage."

Now the other eye was twitching, and the kunoichi's jaw looked like she was clenching it so hard that her teeth were about to shatter. Given his time with Sakura, Naruto was quick to realizing the signs of impending female fury. Deciding that life was more important than spandex, he quickly acquiesced. "I don't have anything on underneath this, so I can't take it off, but I'll use a henge." Action quickly followed word, and to all appearances, Naruto was once more wearing his normal dark grey and green clothes.

Some people might think that it was okay now. Out of sight, out of mind. But Tenten knew better. The spandex was still there. _Waiting._

* * *

Time flew by quickly for Naruto. His days were filled with "teamwork exercises" from Kakashi (which, of course, did absolutely nothing to help Team 7 act more like a team), followed by missions. Afternoons and evenings were spent with Hinata, Tenten and Lee, or on the rare occasions when none of his training partners were available, at home, practicing his sealing skills (Tenten having been kind enough to show him how to make a storage seal, the secret to her seemingly never-ending arsenal of weapons to throw).

He had also discovered a new source of learning. Sneaking into the mission archives was easy, and provided a wealth of information about how experienced shinobi conducting different missions. Even the missions that went wrong provided some valuable insight as Naruto saw the mistakes that had been made. It reminded him of something he had heard from the jōnin-sensei of one of the teams he had spied on. "Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions." By learning about the bad decisions other ninja had made in the past, he learned from their mistakes, and could make good decisions in the future.

Naruto still continued to send clones out to watch other teams, and it was from these observations that he learned about an exciting new adventure that he might be involved in soon.

The Chūnin Exams were coming.


	4. Chapter 4: Surprising Developments

Chapter 4: Surprising Developments

Naruto swore. Loudly. Then, realizing what he had done, swore again, this time more softly. He glanced over at the door, hoping that he hadn't been heard.

He probably wouldn't get too severe of a punishment if he was found here in the mission archives, but still, he didn't want to get in trouble if he didn't have to. After all, there would soon be a chance that he could be promoted to Chūnin, and having been caught in a secure area without authorization would probably not be good for his prospects. But still… he looked at the mission report one more time, longing filling his heart.

Deciding that it was best not to take chances, he rapidly placed the reports back in the box they had come from, which he put back on the shelf where it belonged. Switching off his headlamp, he quickly but quietly made his way over to the far corner of the room. Just in time, too.

He could hear footsteps approaching, and he had just enough time to henge into a mouse and escape through the small drain in the floor before the door burst open and the guard entered, flashlight sweeping across the room.

For a moment, Naruto considered staying until the guard left, then resuming his search, but in the end, he realized that it was too risky. Likely, the guard would be playing closer attention than normal for the rest of the night. In fact, it might be best if he didn't come back for a few days, at least. But after what he had just discovered, the impetuous preteen wasn't sure that he would be able to stay away.

Naruto had always wondered about his family. In fact, a few weeks ago he had broken into the personnel records to look through the ninja registration forms, hoping to find information about other Uzumakis. He had been pleased to note that his unique picture was still included, but that was where the good news ended. Unfortunately, Naruto was the only Uzumaki to be found, and given that the records went back to the time of the Shodai, he had given up hope of learning about his parents.

And yet, he had just seen evidence with his own eyes that there had been another Uzumaki in Konoha shortly before he had been born – a report detailing a successful mission completed by a jōnin named Kushina Uzumaki.

Naruto stewed on this thought for a while. The Hokage had always told him that his parents were unknown. But, surely the old man would know all the jōnin, right? He didn't want to believe that his Hokage-jiji had lied to him, but what other possibility was there?

Once he was a safe distance away from the archives, he resumed his normal form and began the trek home, still deep in his thoughts. He needed more information.

* * *

Naruto was still thinking about what he had found the next evening when he met Tenten for practice. With some effort (and no small amount of reluctance) he turned his thoughts away from his maybe-mother. If there was one thing that he had learned over the past weeks, it was that fighting Tenten while distracted could only end in pain. She was _good_. And could be kind of brutal, too.

Besides, he had something else to focus on. His brilliant, incredibly, absolutely genius idea! The idea that would turn his powerful (but, unfortunately, not extraordinarily powerful) trademark jutsu, the shadow clone jutsu, into a technique that would bring victory against an army.

"Hey, Naruto," Tenten called as she entered the clearing.

"Tenten! Just the weapons expert I wanted to see!" the blonde boy exclaimed. "I need your help with my super awesome idea. My secret weapon, that will make my shadow clones unbeatable!"

To his surprise, Tenten didn't seem to share his enthusiasm. "And what is this weapon?" she inquired cautiously.

Naruto smirked as he unsealed the object, holding it out proudly for his friend to see.

"A bō staff?" Tenten asked, her voice filled with confusion and skepticism.

"Yep," Naruto replied, not the least bit troubled by her lack of understanding. "The problem with my shadow clones is that they pop with just one strong hit, right? Well, if I give them weapons, they won't pop as quickly."

"But, if the weapon is part of the shadow clone, won't it be just as fragile as they are?" Tenten asked with a frown.

"The weapon won't be cloned," Naruto explained. "That's what's so great about a staff! I can make my own, so I'll just make a whole bunch and then carry them in a scroll. Since, y'know, I have this awesome friend who taught me how to make scrolls that can hold a bunch of weapons," he finished with a smirk.

"Damn straight I'm an awesome friend," Tenten replied immediately, then looked thoughtful. "That's… a clever idea. A skilled weapon user shouldn't be injured at all during a fight, so if your clones get good, they could probably hold their own against an opponent that's at about your same skill level. With enough clones, you could probably even swarm someone quite a bit better than you and just overwhelm them with more attacks than they can handle."

"Yeah, I did that to that traitor Mizuki. He was a chūnin and I beat him with just taijutsu."

"You actually won a fight with your lousy skills before you started training with us?" Tenten asked, disbelievingly.

Naruto flushed. It had taken quite a bit of effort from Lee and Gai-sensei to get him to the point that he was actually able to hold his own against other genin because of skill (as opposed to before, where he just refused to give up until they got tired). Now, though, he wasn't a complete embarrassment to Konoha, as Tenten had once kindly put it. He'd even managed to beat Sasuke in a spar a few days ago. He'd had the help of a large number of clones, granted, but Kakashi-sensei's exact words had been, 'anything goes'. Of course, Sasuke hadn't been as pleased with the outcome of the fight as Naruto, but that was what he deserved for being a stuck-up jerk.

Turning his attention back to the girl in front of him, Naruto demonstrated how much he had matured in the past few months. "Shut up," he said, eyes glaring at her, though the corners of his mouth were curled up in just a hint of a smile. He knew that she was just teasing him.

"Well, it's a good idea. So, sure, I'll help you," Tenten finally agreed. "Besides, once you get good at fighting, I can practice my weapons against an enemy that I won't have to hold back against," she added with a smile. A slightly bloodthirsty smile, Naruto noticed with some trepidation.

Still, pain was a good motivator to learn quickly. Naruto had figured that out after his first few times of sparring with Lee, which almost always ended with Naruto lying in a crater with so many bruises they all kind of blended together into one giant one. "So, how are we going to do this?" Naruto asked.

"I'll teach you some basic forms to practice so that you get used to handling it correctly. A bō can be difficult because you have to be careful of where the back end is so you don't hit yourself, or trap the bō against your body in a position that won't allow you to block an attack quickly…"

Naruto quickly made a dozen clones, then began to follow the movements that his friend was demonstrating.

* * *

It was about an hour before Tenten finally called an end to the training.

"Keep practicing those forms, and you can try sparring against your clones if you want to try them in an actual fight. Just remember not to overcommit. A staff is about balance, combining attack and defense into one motion."

"Gotcha," Naruto said with a nod. Tenten had demonstrated that very effectively on some of his clones. He was just grateful that, though he got a momentary flash of pain from the memory of the clone, he didn't receive the actual injuries. Some of those hits would have been very painful. Tenten had no problem with aiming below the belt when she was facing a clone. "So, has Gai-sensei mentioned anything to you about the Chūnin exams?" he asked.

Tenten frowned. "He did mention a few days ago that they were coming up. I don't know exactly when, though." She took a long drink from her water bottle. "I know Neji and Lee are both excited."

"Not you?" Naruto asked.

"It would be nice," Tenten said. "But, to be honest, I don't know how ready I am."

"Are you kidding? You're an awesome kunoichi!" Naruto objected.

"Thanks, but I know I still have a long way to go," Tenten replied with a sigh. "Neji and Lee are both a lot better than me."

"Lee's a great taijutsu fighter, but I bet you could beat him using other methods if you really thought about it," Naruto retorted instantly. "I've got a great way of making really powerful pepper bombs. Let's see him keep fighting with chili powder in his eyes."

Tenten cringed at the thought, but looked a bit more optimistic. "Yeah, that would probably do it. I never really thought about that. My team focuses so much on hand-to-hand combat that the idea of doing something sneaky wouldn't occur to me."

"Isn't that pretty much the shinobi motto? If you're in a fair fight, you've done something wrong."

"Good point," Tenten agreed with a chuckle. "I just wish that I knew more about what will be involved in the exams. I do know that people die during them."

"Gai hasn't given you any clues?" Naruto asked.

"Nope. I guess it would be 'unyouthful' to tell us ahead of time," she replied.

"Well, at least he told you about them," Naruto said darkly. "Kakashi hasn't even mentioned it to us."

"Maybe he's not planning on recommending your team," Tenten warned him. "I mean, you've only been out for six months. My team's been out for a year longer than you."

Naruto groaned. He hadn't even considered that possibility! "Well, he'd better. We're totally ready. Well, maybe not the others, but I certainly am!"

"Really? After just six months, you think you're ready to be a chūnin?"

Naruto scowled at the teasing tone in his friend's voice. "Hey, I've got a super awesome jutsu that has never let me down," he replied.

Tenten rolled her eyes. "Your shadow clones are pretty cool, but I think I've demonstrated that I can go through them quickly enough. Maybe once you get better with your staves, but for now, they're still vulnerable."

"That's not what I was talking about," Naruto protested. "I was talking about my original jutsu, the one that I used to take down the Hokage and a special jōnin."

"The Hokage and a special jōnin?" Tenten echoed, not bothering to hide the disbelief in her voice.

"That's what I just said!"

"Show me," the girl commanded.

"Okay, but you're probably not going to like it," Naruto warned her.

"As long as you don't attack me, I think I can handle it," Tenten said, rolling her eyes.

His hands taking the form of the familiar ram sign, Naruto summoned his chakra. "_Oiroke no jutsu_," he called out.

By now, the feel of the wind on her bare flesh was a familiar sensation. Naruko gave her friend a saucy wink and blew her a kiss before dismissing the jutsu and regaining his normal form of Naruto.

"What was that?" Tenten shrieked.

"I told you, it's my super awesome jutsu that I used to take down Hokage-jiji," Naruto replied simply.

"A naked girl?"

"Yep!" Naruto said, making no effort to hide his pride. "It works great against perverts."

"Yes, which no doubt explains why it's effective against guys. But a kunoichi isn't going to be affected by it," Tenten pointed out, not bothering to hide her disdain.

Naruto shrugged. "Well, most shinobi are guys." He stood up. "Want to spar? Anything goes, like we would do in a real fight?"

"Sure," Tenten replied slowly, clearly suspicious.

_And she's right to be,_ Naruto thought as he walked a short distance away. It would serve her right for doubting the awesome Sexy Jutsu.

"Ready?" he called out as he turned to face his opponent once more. Tenten nodded. "Set, begin!" Naruto called out, his hands forming the familiar handsign used to summon shadow clones. Soon, three dozen copies of him were standing by his side, each with a confident smirk on his face.

"Is that supposed to intimidate me, Naruto?" Tenten asked as she hefted a pair of kunai, holding them in reverse grips.

"Nope, it's just the first part of my attack," Naruto replied. "Now, I do this!" In sync, the clones all brought their hands up in the ram sign. "Reverse harem jutsu," they cried.

* * *

Tenten hadn't chosen to be a kunoichi until she was seven years old. When she was younger, she'd had another dream. But, like most dreams, it hadn't worked out, prompting her to join the academy. Though it wasn't what she had originally wanted in life, that didn't stop her from giving it her all. She didn't have a clan to teach her, or any particularly useful abilities, but she was willing to work hard. Day and night she practiced the skills she had learned at the academy, and it had paid off when she achieved the coveted title of Kunoichi of the Year, ensuring that she would be placed on a team led by a skilled and enthusiastic jōnin, unlike the less fortunate teams whose teachers were just going through the motions. As always, this train of thought reminded her of Sayuri, her friend/rival from academy days, but she pushed those memories aside.

Gai-sensei was a dedicated teacher who truly wanted to see all of his students succeed. He went above and beyond to help his genin learn the skills that they would need to flourish as shinobi, something for which she would be eternally grateful. Her own improvements, not to mention Lee's, were proof that Gai-sensei's methods worked, even if she found her teacher to be exasperating at times.

However, if she were to be brutally honest, his methods had instilled a particular mindset in his students, a very straightforward approach that could be summed up as 'there's the enemy, charge'. And while usually she and her teammates had the skills needed to win, Tenten wasn't so foolish as to believe this would always be the case. It was only a matter of time before they encountered someone who would be able to overcome or somehow counter their martial prowess.

Her spars with Naruto had proven that. While she was much more skilled from a technical perspective, the blonde knucklehead was the most unpredictable opponent she'd ever faced. Frequently, he found crazy new ways of attacking that caught her off guard, and though she was almost always able to recover quickly enough that she still won, his abilities were improving by leaps and bounds, making his unexpected tactics all the more effective. And judging by the smirks on the faces of the many Narutos in front of her, Tenten knew that he had something unexpected up his sleeve.

Which is why, when Naruto called out the attack, Tenten was focused, prepared for anything.

And as the smoke cleared and Naruto came back into view, there was only one thought in Tenten's mind. _That… is a penis._

She blinked, trying to bring her focus back to the fight, and her mind helpfully supplied a correction to her previous thought. _No, those are all penises._

Everywhere she looked, there they were. Long and short, thick and skinny. Flaccid and… very much not flaccid. Every size and shape imaginable. Like everyone at the academy, she had been required to learn a certain amount about sex education, which had involved pictures and diagrams of male genitalia. But that definitely wasn't enough preparation to allow her to keep her composure when surrounded by dozens of naked Narutos, many of them moving about… enthusiastically… in a manner that made it impossible to look anywhere but at their crotches.

Idly, she wondered which one was the closest to being the 'real' Naruto, then began mentally kicking herself for this unhelpful thought.

It was almost a relief when she felt cold steel pressing against her neck and the clones vanished.

"Y'know, it's a good thing that girls aren't perverts, too, or you would be really embarrassed that I managed to beat you without you even laying a finger on me -ttebayo," Naruto whispered mockingly in her ear.

Tenten could feel her face flushing as Naruto removed the kunai from against her neck and took a step back. She turned to glare at him, but the unrepentant grin on his face made it clear that he knew he had won this round.

"I can't believe you did that," she finally bit out.

"Hey, if seeing a naked guy is all that it takes for you to lose your focus, it's good that you know that now. It could cause some problems for you," Naruto countered, his expression surprisingly serious. "All the enemy has to do beat you is drop his pants, so you're not going to last long." The boy shrugged. "Besides, it's not always the enemy. I've been reading old mission reports, and something like a quarter of the losses on missions occurred when one or more members of the team deliberately separated from the others. Sometimes its as simple as going to take a bath, or to take a leak, or something like that. The more time you spend away from your team, the more likely you are to be killed."

Though she was still a little flustered from the earlier sight, Tenten had to admit that her friend had a point. "Yeah, I know," she reluctantly admitted. "I'm just embarrassed that you were able to catch me off guard so easily. Especially after you had just showed me your little naked girl jutsu, so I really should have expected something like that."

"To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that you didn't try to punch me 'cause of my sexy jutsu. Most of the girls in my class got pretty upset when they saw it," Naruto commented.

"While I do find it somewhat demeaning toward women in general, I will concede that it is a valid tactic," Tenten said with a sigh. "When I was in the academy we had a guest lecturer during one of the kunoichi classes, Kurenai Yūhi, who spoke on that. Basically, she told us that we can't be overly worried about modesty. Sometimes, showing a little skin is the best way to complete the mission."

Naruto frowned. "I'm kind of surprised that Hinata's sensei would say something like that. She usually seems kind of prissy." His face scrunched up in thought for a minute before he shrugged. "Well, we're ninja. We do what it takes to complete the mission."

"Yes," Tenten agreed absentmindedly before turning her attention back to the boy in front of her. "So, what have you found out about the Chunin exams?"

Naruto looked at her quizzically. "I told you that Kakashi hasn't told us anything about them. What makes you think I know anything?"

Tenten fixed him with an 'are you stupid' glare. "Naruto, you spy on other teams. I'm sure at least one of them has mentioned something about the exam."

"Not as much as I'd like," the boy admitted. "Just that people die, and the last stage of the exam is a tournament in the big arena. Apparently, they invite lots of people to come and watch in hopes of getting new clients when everyone sees how awesome we all are."

A frown crossed Tenten's face as her mind raced. "So, it's a competition against other genin, not just a test of our skills. And since we would already be some of the younger participants, it would probably be best to pretend to be weaker than we are so that our opponents underestimate us."

"That makes sense. As long as it doesn't hurt our chances of being promoted," the blonde agreed. "Well, if we both end up entering, we can share ideas and help each other out so that we end up in the tournament together. We'll have such an awesome fight that they'll have no choice but to promote both of us!"

"Are you sure you can take me?" Tenten countered with a mischievous smile.

Naruto scoffed. "Have you already forgotten who won our fight ten minutes ago?"

"That's just because I wasn't expecting it. It won't happen twice," Tenten claimed, waving dismissively. "Besides, maybe all I need to have you passed out on the ground is to show some skin."

"Well, any time you want to test your theory out, I'd be happy to look at you naked," Naruto replied cheekily.

Tenten's eyes narrowed. "Pervert."

* * *

Naruto returned to the mission archives the next night. Normally, he would be practicing with Hinata, but lately her father had been insisting that she return home each night for additional training. _Is he expecting that she'll be in the Chūnin exams?_ Naruto contemplated this idea for a few minutes before ultimately discarding it. There was no way to know, so there was no reason to spend time wondering. Hopefully, she would be. It would be fun to have another friend in the tests with him, since, of course, he would be in the exam, no matter what Kakashi-sensei said.

Still, while he missed practicing with his shy friend, Naruto was grateful that it gave him more time to investigate the mystery of his parents. After all, that was why he was here.

After checking that he was alone, Naruto shifted back into his normal form and tiptoed to the door, careful not to make a sound. Confident that the guard was nowhere near, he made two dozen clones, which immediately set to work.

'Training' that day had consisted of a boring D-rank and a lame exercise with a ball that was supposed to increase Team 7's teamwork. Not surprisingly, it hadn't been successful, but it had given Naruto the time to think up a good way of getting the information he needed from the archives.

The clones would grab a box and quickly look through all the reports, separating out the ones involving Kushina Uzumaki. Thanks to the standardized format for mission reports, which always began with an overview of the mission objectives, the name of the client, and, very conveniently for Naruto, the names of the ninja assigned to the mission, it didn't take long for Naruto to have a stack of reports on the missions his maybe-mother had completed.

Carefully holding the pile of paperwork in one hand, with his chin on the top of the pile to hold it all together, he managed to make the cross sign for the shadow clone jutsu. Soon, there were a dozen more copies of him in the room, these ones all holding a stack of folders.

"Shift and head back to the apartment," Naruto ordered quietly, and the clones did so, the stack of papers transforming with them when they shifted into mouse-form. Naruto set the reports he was holding back on the table. "Right, let's get these back into the boxes where they belong."

The remaining clones set to the task with gusto, and soon they were finished. Dismissing the clones, Naruto shifted forms and stealthily made his way down the drain and out into the streets, with none of the guards any the wiser that he had ever been there.

When he arrived, he was pleased to see that his clones were already hard at work skimming the mission reports and copying out the key details of each one. He just hoped that he didn't run out of pens or paper. He didn't know how long the clones would last, but it wouldn't be forever. And when they were gone, the cloned mission reports would vanish as well.

_I really need to find a way to make clones last longer,_ the boy realized. Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do about that right now. Instead, he grabbed a pen of his own and set to work.

By the time Naruto and his clones had finished, his hand was cramping badly. It had taken hours, and filled up hundreds of pieces of paper, but he now had the key details on most, if not all, of the missions his mother had been assigned.

It took some time to sort the summaries into a chronological order, but it was worth the effort. _If there was any doubt that she was my mother, it's gone now. She stopped taking missions eight months before I was born. That's not a coincidence, -ttebayo!_

That wasn't the only interesting fact he discovered. As a genin, his mother had also been stuck on a team with an Uchiha. Mikoto Uchiha, to be precise. Naruto frowned. The name sounded familiar, but he didn't know where he might have heard it. Still, a quick search through the ninja registration forms should solve that problem. And his mother had been rescued by the fourth Hokage when she was abducted by Kumo-nin as a genin! Naruto couldn't help but smile at this. The Yondaime had always been his hero. It just made sense that such an awesome ninja would singlehandedly rescue someone from being kidnapped, even if he was technically disobeying orders by going alone when he was supposed to report back if he found any sign of them.

Unfortunately, there hadn't been any clear pattern of men she had worked with that might give Naruto some clue as to his father's identity. Obviously, his parents weren't married, given that Kushina's family name had always been Uzumaki. Not for the first time, he wondered if maybe he was the result of a one-night fling, or something like that. For a child who had always had an idealized view of parents, and dreamed of belonging to a loving family, this was an uncomfortable notion to consider, but he wasn't going to stop his search now just because what he found wasn't quite what he had hoped.

The next step would be to track down his mother's old teammates. The Uchiha one was probably dead (unless she had married outside the clan and somehow survived the Uchiha massacre) but maybe the other one was still around. Naruto looked at the name once more. Takeshi Yamada. Obviously not a member of one of the clans, but judging by the mission reports, he was reasonably skilled.

Even if Naruto was unable to find the third teammate, perhaps he could find his mother's jōnin sensei. He'd have to be stealthy about it, though, since she was a Sarutobi, and he didn't want the old man to know that he was sneaking around trying to find out about his parents. He'd never heard of the name Biwako before, but there couldn't be that many, right? Of course, she would be old by now, but still, she might be able to help him.

Naruto looked over at the clock and groaned. It was almost four in the morning! He needed to get some sleep. Before climbing into bed, however, he made one last clone, which immediately left to break into the personnel records to find out everything he could about his mother's genin team.

* * *

As usual, training that day was an absolute joke. To his surprise, he wasn't the only one who felt this way, as Sasuke was clearly getting frustrated with their lazy teacher as well. And speaking of Sasuke, it was all Naruto could do to keep from exclaiming that their moms had been on a genin team together. Hadn't that been a surprise when he read his clone's notes that morning! Unfortunately, none of the information his clone had found turned out to be of any use.

Although, it did convince him that old man Hokage was knowingly lying to him. After all, surely the old man would know about his wife's students. And yet, he claimed not to know any other Uzumakis. Naruto didn't spend much time dwelling on that thought. It made him too angry, and he was already in a bad enough mood after yet another one of Kakashi's 'lessons'.

* * *

It was a few days later when the answer finally came to him. His mother was obviously a strong, talented kunoichi, and there's no way someone like that would be interested in a little wimp, so clearly his father must have been a powerful ninja as well. And since he must have been alive within nine months of Naruto's birthday and was dead when the Kyūbi attacked (or, at least, that's what Naruto hoped, ignoring the little squirming doubts in his stomach that suggested maybe his father was alive and just didn't want anything to do with his son) that gave him a time frame that he should be looking at to find when his father had died.

Naruto found himself looking in a mirror, wondering how much he looked like his parents. Without ever having seen a picture of his mother, and with no idea of who his father was, he could only guess. _This would be lots easier if I knew what my mom looked like! Stupid Hokage! _He had long ago realized that the Sandaime was the most likely explanation for why his mother's registration was no longer in the personnel records.

That was when Naruto realized that there was a way for him to find out what his mother looked like. A smile spread across his face as he thought about it, a vague idea giving way to a solid plan. Old Man Hokage certainly wouldn't approve, but Naruto didn't care. He had a right to know about his parents, and nobody was going to stop him.

* * *

A/N – A thousand apologies that it has taken me so long to update this story. I've had a chapter 90% finished for months now, but it just didn't work like I wanted, so I ended up writing a whole new chapter and splitting the other one up (and adding quite a bit) to make it into chapters 5-7. Hopefully, those will go much faster since I already have some fairly sizeable chunks written. So, we're going to be covering the chūnin exams in a bit more depth than I had originally planned, while showing the first stages in Naruto's development into a true S-rank powerhouse.


End file.
